The Election commission of India on Monday announced dates for the 15th Lok Sabha elections , which will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13.

The voting dates are April 16, April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13 while counting will be held on May 16.

Announcing the dates Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami said that 124 constituencies would vote on April 16, followed by 141 on April 23, 107 on April 30, 85 on May 7 and 86 on May 13.

Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh will vote in five phases, Bihar will have four-phase elections while Maharashtra and West Bengal will vote in three phases.

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab will hold the elections in two phases. Fifteen states and seven Union Territories will go in for one-phase voting.

All election related procedures will be completed before May 28.

The dates were announced after the three-member Election Commission met under the chairmanship of Gopalaswami in New Delhi on Monday.

The model code of conduct also comes into effect immediately.

“Nearly 40 lakh civil personnel and 21 lakh police personnel will be used for elections” said N Gopalaswami.

The delimitation of parliamentary constituencies is over except for Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur, Assam and Nagaland. Out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, 499 have been redrawn following the delimitation.

There are a total of 71.40 crore voters with 4.30 crore of them will be eligible to vote for the first time.

There will be 8,28,804 polling stations for the General Elections.

The term of the 14th Lok Sabha ends on June 1, 2009 so the new Lok Sabha will have to be constituted by then.

Gopalaswami's term ends on April 20, 2009, which means a major part of the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha will be held under Chawla's supervision.

In the 14th Lok Sabha the UPA had 217 members, the NDA 185 while the Left Front had 60 MPs.